It’s all happening Stereophonicis making the jump to Broadway.
Written by David Adjmi, the play also features original music by Arcade Fire’s Will Butler.
But don’t call it a musical.
David Adjmi; Will Butler.Astrid Stawiarz/Getty; Michael Loccisano/Getty
It’s a play with songs.
“They do sing, but they’re not breaking the fourth wall.
But I didn’t end up doing that.”
David Adjmi
That’s what we see.
The same way you would see people rehearsing something in a documentary."
“I had had enough of a structure to know where the songs could fit,” says Adjmi.
David Adjmi
And people are starting to fray a little bit."
Let’s take a look.
“They’re just like, ‘Eden, that’s so f–ing evocative.
David Adjmi
But it’s more about the Garden of Eden than about John Steinbeck.
‘East of Eden’ is just a phrase that sticks in your brain.”
“This scene is also very gendered,” he adds.
David Adjmi
It’s very biblical.
It has this undertone where it’s very loss of innocence, but also making all of humanity."
(2) Slashes
Adjmi writes with overlapping dialogue, denoted by double slashes on the page.
“The way that I write, it’s almost like an architectural blueprint.
“Diana is in the sound room in the scene, and they’re in the control room.
It doesn’t read like Arthur Miller, let’s put it that way.”
“We would audition different microphones,” he explains.
How do you do that is a technical thing, and it affects the composition.
This is the era where sound is the composition.
You’re composing in electrons etched onto a tape.
That’s your oil paint electrons on a tape.
“Peter is exhausted in the scene, and he’s not behaving totally rationally.
He wants the album done, he wants to be efficient, and he thinks she can do it.
If she can’t do it, let’s find a solution right now.
That’s the mindset that he’s in.
No one is thinking terribly clearly.”
Butler adds that any singer who cares for their voice would never use such a tactic now.
“Everyone now is a goddamn hippie,” he says.
“Alcohol dries out your vocal cords, and even lemon is not that good for you.
you might put honey in your tea if you want.
But room temperature water is really the best.”
“This is perceived as something hardcore to say,” says Adjmi.
“That’s an insult.
‘Let’s change so that you don’t have to sing in this key.’
That’s considered really bad form.
But the profession is not just note-hitter.
“How do we make it so it’s believable that she can’t hit this note?”
It is like a math problem.
And then what releases that?'”
“She’s on a ledge in the scene,” the playwright adds.
“She’s drowning in this booth.
But she also feels oppressed by that.
So, she is in the crosshairs of all these very contradictory emotions.”
And the more that he demands, the worse it gets.
There is a genuine, very deep and profound love between these two people.
But there is something about the dynamic of being an artist and becoming famous that doesn’t work.
She knows it, so she has hit this peak of contradictions in herself.
But you’ll have to come see the play.”
“I was trying to figure out ways of increasing the tension in the scene,” says Adjmi.
“What would make it more urgent?
And our sound designer, was like, ‘Well, if they’re running out of tracks.’
I really liked calling attention to that stuff because it feels historical.
Now, my stomach hurts when I watch this scene, it’s so tense.”
